Fresh As A Daisy

Little wild daisies are one of my favorite wildflowers, so the photos I shot of them recently seemed a fitting companion to my announcement that I finally have my computer problems solved! Hooray!!!!!

Back in April, Windows pushed out an automatic overnight security update to my computer that caused everything to grind to a crawl. My PC went from being a beloved creative tool to a bane to my existence. The keyboard and mouse would freeze up inexplicably. Applications would run in the background and make the PC into a slug. No matter what my in-house techie Hubby or our out-of-house professional PC docs did, the poor thing just couldn't be brought back to what it had been before the April update.

Hubby has been saying the same thing for a few years now, "You're not going to be happy until you finally are back on a Mac."

In my former B.H. life ("Before Hubby"), I worked as a Mac computer trainer, help desk support person, and all-around Mac guru for a company that was totally Mac faithful. In fact, Macs were something that were part of my entire adulthood. I had been introduced to the very first little Mac "classic" (before it was even called that) when I was 18 years old. I had grown with Macs as they grew--adopting new software and technology as it was released. With a fresh Commercial Art degree back in the 80's, I was even on the cutting-edge of desktop publishing with the early version of Adobe PageMaker. I spent all of my 20's in a Mac-centric career of desktop publishing and admin support.

So I knew deep down Hubby was right.

But in the years A.H. ("After Hubby"), I had entrenched myself in the PC world with a lot of software that was only available on PC's. I kept telling him that I could make do. I'd made the switch. It wasn't necessary to make the expensive decision to go back to Mac. But as I have progressively re-embraced my creative roots over the past year and a half, it had become more and more clear that Hubby was right.

I really wasn't going to be happy until I was on a Mac again.

A quick trip to the Apple store in downtown Walnut Creek with my photography loaded on a flash drive in-hand, was the clincher. The staff at the store happily let me plug-in the flash drive to any of the Apple's on display. I was floored. My photos came alive on the gorgeous Apple Cinema displays. My work looked like it was supposed to look.

We left and talked it over for a few days. I researched and Hubby researched. Using a software like VMware would make the PC software issue a moot point. There wasn't anything left I could argue with.

Then when we went back to the Apple store to make the purchase, they were throwing in an all-in-one HP printer with each Mac purchase for $99. The printer came with a $100 mail-in rebate. A "free" printer! It must have been meant to be.

And the white printer is so cute too (if a printer can be "cute"). Everything in my studio went from the glossy blacks and gun-metal greys of PCs to the fresh whites and silvers of the Apple iMac and its new companion HP printer. It's so easy on the eyes!

I'm back. I'm on a Mac. And I'm feeling fresh as a daisy!